Miller's election would remove Social Security from Alaska's economy

Posted: Sunday, October 31, 2010

The 2010 election rhetoric has brought about a plethora of insults and promises on Social Security. There are few threats seniors especially should note. U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller promises to "do away with" Social Security as unconstitutional. This is a major plank in the tea party platform. We can expect Miller and the tea party to eliminate Social Security in time. Or we can vote for candidate Lisa Murkowski who has voted 14 times to throttle Social Security and Medicare in favor of increased drug company profits and tax cuts for the wealthy. Murkowski has voted with her party to privatize the entire Social Security operation.

Let's examine the impact Social Security has on Alaska. Fairbanks receives 8,435 Social Security checks each month. About 5,385 are retired workers, 270 are spouses of retired, and 160 are children of retired workers. Five hundred sixty checks go to widow survivors, while 480 are for children. Fairbanks receives 1,295 checks for disabled workers and 260 for disabled worker children. Thirty-six percent of all Social Security checks delivered to Fairbanks go to children, survivor spouses or people with disabilities. Given the most recent financial information, Fairbanks stands to loose $11,583,000 monthly with Miller. Murkowski and her party dependably will keep picking at the program.

Juneau would lose $5,866,000 from monthly commerce. Our entire state's economy is tentatively at risk with Miller. In most states 8 percent of checks go to children. In Alaska that number jumps to 12 percent.

Anchorage has 28,335 retired workers, including about 4,735 disabled, receiving Social Security. That's nearly $40 million each month which Miller would slash from the Anchorage economy. According to a recent Newsweek article, the end of Social Security is a major plank in the tea party platform. Miller is a tea party darling. Seniors can expect Miller to keep his word and vote tea party. Alaska is in trouble with Miller.

The Republican Party has sent out truckloads of mail recently altering Miller's position, but Miller has not personally changed his stance. Neither of these candidates are friends of Alaska seniors. Why would you vote for them?

Thanks to AARP, ISER and Alaska Department of Labor for reference materials.